Etymologically
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fauna

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfɔːnə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin fauna,[2][3][4][5][6] an application of Late Latin Fauna, the name of a Roman rural goddess of fertility,[4][7][8][9] usually called the sister of Faunus,[2][10][8][11] though Barnhart and Etymonline also make her his wife or daughter.[4][7] Faunus, a god of the countryside worshipped by shepherds and farmers and identified with the Greek Pan, is the source of faun.[11][7][2] The Swedish naturalist Linnaeus used the name in the title of his catalogue of the animals of Sweden, “Fauna Suecica” (1746), as a companion to his “Flora Suecica” (1745),[2][11][4] and so made it a counterpart of flora in the natural sciences.[7][12][13] Klein calls the names of the two deities of uncertain origin and suggests, as a possibility, a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dhau- (“to strangle”), with the sense "wild beast".[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal life of a region: 1771, in a letter of Gilbert White later printed in his Natural History of Selborne (1789).[2][7] Dictionary.com dates the word 1765–75.[13]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English as a scientific term already paired with flora, the plant life of a region,[2][7][10] and has kept that meaning: the animals of a region, a habitat or a geological period.[2][15][16] From 1885 it was also used of a book or treatise describing such animals.[2][16][10] Merriam-Webster also records it for the animals adapted to one kind of environment, such as caves or the human intestine.[6] Both the English plural faunas and the Latin faunae are used.[6][5][10]

Timeline

  • 1746 – Linnaeus's “Fauna Suecica”.[2][11][4]
  • 1771 – the animals of a region or period, in Gilbert White.[2][7][4][6]
  • 1885 – a treatise on the animals of a region or period.[2][16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The animals of a particular region, habitat or geological period, especially as distinguished from its flora: the fauna of the Andes.[5][6][2][15]
  2. The animals adapted to a particular kind of environment: the fauna of desert springs.[6]
  3. A book or list describing the animals of a region or period.[5][2][6][15]

Word family

  • faunal
  • faunally
  • avifauna
  • epifauna
  • faunistic
  • ichthyofauna
  • infauna
  • megafauna

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  15. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  16. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)